Even with the popularity of MP3 players and smart mobile phones, such as iPhones®, for portable content storage and playback, terrestrial radio broadcasts continue to generate more than $20 billion annually in advertisement (ad) revenue. However, approximately 75% of this revenue is generated from localized ad insertion. As large radio station conglomerates transition from traditional terrestrial broadcasting to a primary focus on internet delivery, they will inevitably need to develop new business models to address local vendor ad opportunities.
In view of the foregoing, leveraging long-term-evolution (LTE) and global positioning system (GPS) mobile features without compromising listener privacy for streaming media will be a desire of internet radio and wireless carrier providers.
In addition to the radical changes of traditional (ad based) radio distribution as owners shift to primarily internet distribution, a concurrent secondary paradigm shift will occur within wireless data distribution and their associated backhaul networks. Basically, as fiber is built out to the towers to handle LTE and Wi-Max, the bandwidth choke points will move from backhaul to available wireless spectrum. Accordingly, US wireless carriers will necessarily require more efficient systems to allow internet radio distribution over their mobile LTE and Wi-Max networks.